Pages

Things I learned on the way to the Regency.

I love reading non-fiction history, which is a good thing since I have to do a lot of research when I write my novels. Right now, my focus is Regency England, the era of Jane Austen, Waterloo, Trafalgar, Napoleon, Byron and Empire waistlines. I love picking up interesting facts and tidbits from this time period. Today, I thought I'd share some of those facts about the Regency, especially in regards to medicine. Here are a few of my favorite discoveries.

- Nitrous Oxide - Discovered in 1775 by Joseph Priestley and used by Dr. Humphry Davy in the late 1700s and early 1800s to get high. Dr. Davy suggested its use as an aid to surgery but no one picked up on the idea until the 1840s.

- Maternity Hospitals - They've been around longer than you think. Lying-in hospitals as they were originally known, began to appear in London in the mid-seventeenth century. The Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital began its life in the early seventeenth century as the General Lying-In Hospital. It was renamed the Queen Charlotte Maternity Hospital in 1813 in honor of the Queen's generous patronage.

- Surgeons - By the Regency, improvements in surgical techniques and practices increased the reputation of surgeons. No longer viewed a simply barber butchers, they became a part of the established medical system, receiving and contributing to formal medical education.

- Antiseptics - Dr. Davy joins us again, this time as one of many scientists working to define the newly discovered iodine. Although people understood that vinegar, wine and thyme could stop wounds from becoming infected, the lack of germ theory prevented the widespread use of antiseptics until the late nineteenth century.

After discovering the above, I am once again very thankful for modern medicine.

Really fascinating stuff! One of my favorite Regency authors, Julie Klassen, includes a lot of stuff like this in her books. She has one with lots of info about early pharmacies, one about breastfeeding beliefs and practices, etc. Really fascinating and she's a great storyteller too, must like yourself! Thanks for sharing it at Booknificent Thursday last week! Hope to see you again this week.Tina

Labels

Visit Georgie Lee's Website!

4 Stars from RT Book Reviews!

Follow Me On Pinterest

Disclosure

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact georgie.lee@yahoo.com.

Some links are Amazon Affiliate links.

This blog does not accept any form of advertising, sponsorship, or paid insertions. We write for our own purposes. However, we may be influenced by our background, occupation, religion, political affiliation or experience.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.